1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to protective gloves and is directed more particularly to gloves for use in xe2x80x9cfriskxe2x80x9d and xe2x80x9cpat-downxe2x80x9d searches, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to use gloves in frisk and pat-down operations, to provide protection against blood borne pathogens that cause disease, such as HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria, and the like. It is further known to use such gloves in correction facilities for searches of persons and cells, and the like. Typically, the gloves used are of thin stretchy latex, nitrite, nitrite coated material, vinyl, or vinyl coated material. The gloves are not resistant to needle puncture, not sufficiently durable for continuous pat-down use because of poor abrasion resistance, and not resistant to cuts and tears. In an effort to improve upon these characteristics, gloves of the same type have been made durable and more protective, but at the. cost of stiffness and bulkiness, so much so that tactility is lost or at least greatly diminished. That is, the wearer lacks good perception or feel of an object being touched.
Thus, there is a need for a frisk and pat-down glove which is resistant to needle punctures and cuts, but with good tactile characteristics.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a protective glove for frisk and pat-down searches, the glove providing protection to the wearer against punctures and cuts, but which is flexible, durable, form-fitting, and affords excellent tactility.
With the above and other objects in view, as will hereinafter appear, a feature of the invention is the provision of a protective glove for a human hand, the glove including five finger portions, and a finger tip portion of one or more of the finger portions, the finger tip portions comprising wire mesh.
The above and other features of the invention, including various novel details of construction and combinations of parts, will now be more particularly described with reference to the accompanying drawings and pointed out in the claims. It will be understood that the particular device embodying the invention is shown by way of illustration only and not as a limitation of the invention. The principles and features of this invention may be employed in various and numerous embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention.